Just as I’m writing this the mayor of Los Angeles has cleared the beaches and at least technically banned pretty much all types of social festivities (well, if you live alone, anyway), and fireworks displays of any kind. Nevertheless, no law yet known can take away my right to bear armaments that explode in my mouth. And that brings me to this year’s Independence Day drink that is both sweet and hot as you like it. Mr. Pepper comes to us from the people behind Clyde May’s Alabama Whiskey. Before the booze fairy gifted me with a bottle, I knew…
Author: Bob Westal
Bob Westal
Writer guy Bob Westal was literally born in Hollywood and has commented on the worlds of movies, popular culture, politics, and food ever since. His interest in cocktails is more recent, but he made up for lost time with hundreds of “Drink of the Week” blog posts for Bullz-Eye. In addition to writing and editing, Bob also talks a lot.
This week we’re keeping it deceptively simple with a drink that once again teaches us about the often fine line between delight and disgust. Little Italy is the creation of Audrey Sanders, founder of Manhattan’s Pegu Club and all-around cocktalian heavy hitter. While today’s beverage might seem like a pretty basic spin on a Manhattan, it contains multitudes. Some of those multitudes are nasty if you use the wrong brands but when you use the right ones, it’s kind of astonishing. I just wish I could explain why that is. Little Italy 2 ounces rye whiskey 3/4 ounce sweet vermouth 1/2…
Some cocktails have mythic stories behind them, while a great many others simply started as promotions. That’s actually a good thing because the liquor companies and their mixologists — both famed and unknown — have every reason to come up with the best tasting mixed drinks possible. The White Dragon appears to have been commissioned from widely admired Oregon-based bartender and author Jim Meehan. Meehan’s sponsor back in the mid-teens was Casa Dragones Blanco Tequila which I’m sure is excellent stuff — or at least it damn well ought to be about at $70-80 for a fifth. Well, they didn’t send…
Despite the cocktail revolution, most people still don’t know what sIoe gin is. The first thing you should know is that it’s only gin in the same way some super-sweet liqueurs like apricot brandy or cherry brandy are brandy — they may be made with brandy but they are very definitely not the distilled spirit we call brandy. This is a fruit-based liqueur made with gin. So, what is a sloe? Sloe berries are found on blackthorn bushes and are apparently similar to cranberries in that, on their own, they are too tart for most of us. Add a buttload…
As the summer solstice fast approaches and the world warms, my mind is still on fizzes. This week, we’re doing a drink that was created by noted Portland-based super-bartender, cocktail author, and blogger, Jeffrey Morganthaler. My version of his Formosa Fizz varies from the original in a couple of ways which we’ll get to later. Inspired by the Clover Club — one of my all-time favorite drinks — It’s one of the few fizzes that uses tequila as its prime spirit and only booze. Not too surprising considering that most drinks in this genre precede prohibition and tequila didn’t really become…
Many of the concoctions that mixed drink archaeologist Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh unearthed in his seminal Vintage Drinks and Forgotten Cocktails are now anything but forgotten. Some, like the Corpse Reviver #2, have become staples. Not so with the Delicious Sour. A clear ancestor of the mid-century tiki classics but just a hair less overpoweringly sweet, for my tastebuds it’s definitely a delicious sour, if not the delicious sour. It’s a shame it’s not better known. There’s probably more than one reason for that. Not long ago, the Delicious Sour would have been a tough sell. Haigh obviously thought so, as the recipe for this drink…
Blood oranges are in season which, among other things, is a good excuse to do a truly proper Blood and Sand, presumably named after a silent melodrama that blew the roof off of theaters back in 1922. I addressed it way back in what seems like another universe in the year of 2014. Last year, I created my own blood orange concoction inspired by another vintage film, this one with Mae Clarke rather than original it-boy Rudolf Valentino. Now, with a few of the of these tangier, darker oranges in my fridge, I set about to find something different. I …
I’m not really sure you could say there’s any kind of a theme to the trio of egg-white free sours I’m wrapping up today. We do have a bit more of an inkling, though, about where this drink might come compared to our fabulous prior beverage, known simply as Junior. As far as I can tell, Judge Jr. was the name — or perhaps the nom de booze — of a reasonably well-known bartender who included the drink in his short prohibition-era cocktail book, Here’s How! (You can read the whole thing, free of charge and with page-turning sound-effects, on the internets.) I assume…
Last week we explored a tasty variation on a classic theme with the Frisco Sour. Now it’s time for the Junior, a variation on that variation that I think is one of the best cocktails I’ve made in terms of its flavor balanced against its simplicity. Being easy to make is no small virtue. Nobody seems to know why the Frisco Sour is called that — I like to think it’s to annoy overly proud San Franciscans — and the provenance of the name “Junior” is just as much a mystery. As far as I know, there’s no mixed drink called “the…
The Frisco Cocktail goes back to Prohibition and perhaps even to some ancient time when San Franciscans wouldn’t sneer at you for calling their town “Frisco.” The Friscans might be just touch precious but it’s a great town and I’ve been feeling quite proud of my home state of California. A drink named after the Golden State’s first signature city seems apt. Here’s where it gets weird, though. I just now procrastinated by picking up my cellphone and looking at Facebook, where a friend of mine posted a link to an article that kind of blew what’s left of my…